


Is This Really It?

by LittleSweetCheeks



Series: Don't Call Me.... [3]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Family, Friendship, Gen, Support
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-22 19:21:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20879372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleSweetCheeks/pseuds/LittleSweetCheeks
Summary: Penelope's first case with the team.





	Is This Really It?

Hotch followed Morgan, Gideon, and the two local officers into the house. The front rooms looked pristine, but his nose curled as a very specific smell wafted down the stairs. Swallowing down his body’s first response to what he knew was waiting at the top, Aaron started the climb. The master bedroom presented an entirely different picture.

Darla and John Hanson had been the most recent victims in a string of multi-jurisdictional home invasion-murders. And the unsub was increasing in his violence and mutilation. Stepping, finally, into the bedroom, he had to hold his breath as he assessed the scene for the first time. It was next to impossible to tell where mister and missus began and ended, blood covered almost every surface of the room. They suspected that the murders had taken place sometime Friday evening, they hadn’t been found though until the poor college student dogwalker had turned up Monday to take Juno, the couple’s normally white purebred Samoyed, on her daily walk and had found the dog caked in the couple’s blood.

The student had been escorted to the hospital for a mental wellness check and poor Juno had been taken to the pound for the time being. Bloody pawprints gave them a picture of Juno’s weekend trapped in the house.

“I already did what you asked.” The young officer who had drawn the short straw to escort the agents to the scene spoke directly to Hotch, determined not to look afraid under the taller man’s assessing stare.

“I’m sorry?” Aaron turned to him.

“At the station, you had said all photos, video, any digital information we received needed to go to your analyst. I didn’t want to hold things up so I already sent the photos and video of the room and the house off to the address the other agent gave us. And the dog stuff too.” He smiled proudly, expected a figurative pat on the head for taking initiative. He didn’t understand when the agent instead frowned and turned away.

“Excuse me.”

He watched Hotch walk down the hall and step into another room, shutting the door.

Hotch pressed speed dial three on his phone and waited.

“Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia, how may I assist you?”

The corners of his lips twitched at her formalness. “Hey, it’s me.”

“What may I do for you, Sir?”

“It’s your first official case and I heard you got all the photos from this scene I’m at now and I’m calling to check on you.” He sighed. “I thought I’d be able to warn you before they were sent.”

“Is this what I signed up for?” Her voice had lost its confidence. “Is this what the job really is?”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

“How do you do this? How can you walk into a place like in these pictures and be okay after?”

“It’s hard. Sometimes I don’t do a great job of not letting it get to me. You’ll either find a way to cope or eventually you’ll get moved to another department. We go through a lot of analysts.”

She sniffed. “I’ll manage, I promise.”

“Well, call me if you need anything at all, okay? Even if it’s to talk.”

“Okay.” She glanced at the far computer screen where the photos were. “Did they at least die quickly?”

“Yes.” He lied.

“Thank you for that. I’ll get back to you once I’ve crunched the new data, okay?”

“Thank you, Garcia.”

==

Penelope shuffled into her new apartment just as the sun was setting and dumped her things on the couch. She wasn’t really in the mood to cook anything for just herself. Puttering around, she thought about how weird it was to be on her own now. She’d lived with her parents and then was only alone a short time before she found guys like Shane and then it was a series of hopping from one guy’s apartment to another, sometimes just as a roomie, occasionally as a relationship. A few days at the Hotchner’s had turned into her entire stint at the Academy and she and Haley had become fast friends on those nights Hotch was out of town.

Frowning at her stove, Garcia wondered what Haley was up to tonight, would she want to hang out or was she just playing nice because she’d been a work colleague of her husband’s. Playing with her phone before tucking it away in her pocket, she collected a container of ice cream rom the freezer, drizzling chocolate sauce right on top, and curled under a blanket to watch something funny on TV.

==

Shuffling into his hotel room, Hotch pulled out his phone and dialed his wife.

“Hey, Aaron. How’s it going?” Haley answered.

“Okay, it’s been a long day. How are you?”

“I’m good.” She smiled. “Everything’s good.”

He relaxed, hearing her say that. “Good. I was wondering… I’m a little worried about Penelope. This is her first case and it’s…bad. Without physically seeing her, I can’t tell how she’s actually handling it.”

Haley sat on her bed. “And you want me to call and check on her?”

“Would you? I tried asking her how she was earlier today but I don’t know if maybe she doesn’t want to look like she can’t do this job.”

“Don’t worry, Aaron. I’ll talk to her.”

“Thank you so much Haley. Really, you’re the best.”

“I’ll check on her, you go work on your case. I love you.”

“Love you too.”

==

Penelope was surprised when someone knocked on her door. Wrapping the blanket around her, she stood and answered it, smiling and shaking her head when she saw it was Haley. “He called you?”

Haley came in and sat when the younger woman gestured to the living room. “Aaron is, above all else, a worrier. And right now, he’s worried about you.”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you really?” Haley studied her. “I hate what it is he does, it’s just…horrific. I wouldn’t be fine if I had to deal with it and sometimes I worry a little that he’s so okay with it.”

“It was hard today.” She admitted. “I had to process some photos and video that were just bad. I did what the team needed, but I guess I just hadn’t realized how it would feel when suddenly I couldn’t pretend anymore that those people used to be real people and not, you know, staged photos or something. To know I was looking at something while the others were standing there physically in it at the same time. I guess I started to feel a bit alone after that.”

“Well, you’re not alone. If you want, we can make plans to do things together during your off hours, just us girls.”

“That sounds fun.”

“I’m glad. I’m going to need help shopping eventually and I’m betting you’re just the person to help.”

==

It took nearly a week, but eventually the team tracked down their guy and were headed home. Back at the office, Hotch dropped his briefcase by his desk before backtracking and finding his way to Garcia’s office. He knocked gently on the partially opened door. “Garcia?”

“Yeah?”

He pushed the door all the way open and stepped in, not bothering to catch it as it clicked shut behind him. “Normally after a first case like this, agents are sent to see someone for an assessment, to see if they can establish skills to help cope with this job.” He drew in a breath and sighed. “But then, most of them have chosen to work for the FBI in general and this unit in particular and so by the time they get here, they’re a bit more well adapted.”

“I- What’s that mean? This unit in particular?”

“We don’t get assigned agents fresh out of the academy, we don’t have time for the close supervision and things that come with it. Agents have to have been with the Bureau a few years before applying to the unit.”

“Oh.”

“I can send you to talk to someone, and I will force you to go if I have to, but I was thinking… Maybe we could brainstorm some ways to cope day to day with what you’ll see? Find a way to balance it out?”

She glanced around the boring box of a room and nodded. “Do you think… Do you think anybody would mind if I decorated a bit?”

Hotch thought a moment. “I don’t see why not.”


End file.
